


The Hatchetfield Survivors

by caffeine_and_showtunes



Category: Black Friday - Team StarKid, Starkid, The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals - Team StarKid
Genre: F/M, M/M, Nonbinary Ethan Green
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-06-29
Packaged: 2021-03-02 22:53:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 16,785
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24174649
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caffeine_and_showtunes/pseuds/caffeine_and_showtunes
Summary: Bill, Alice, and Paul make it back to Professor Hidgen's house safely, where they rejoin Hidgens, Ted, and Emma and decide to wait out the apocalypse. When they eventually leave the walls of their sanctuary, they find other survivors, including fan-favorites from Black Friday. As time goes on, Ted and Hidgens find themselves growing closer, a relationship neither is ready for.
Relationships: Charlotte & Ted (The Guy Who Didn't Like Musicals), Cineplex Teen/Hot Chocolate Boy (Black Friday), Ethan Green & Hannah Foster, Henry Hidgens/Ted, Lex Foster/Ethan Green, Paul Matthews/Emma Perkins
Comments: 16
Kudos: 93





	1. No Music

Ted jammed the chord into the headphone jack, twisting it every which way, but the music still came out garbled. He should have expected as much. He was careless with his earbuds and the way he carried them. These ones had served him well for almost six months and it was their time to go. He had seen it coming, but when the music finally cut out for good, the silence weighed in on him. Ted's hands shook as he continued trying to get some noise from them. It was pointless. 

He leaned back against Charlotte's tree and tried to stop shaking, holding back the tears that were all too imminent. He had made it three weeks without crying over it. He hadn't broken down yet. Of course it was one little obstacle like this that broke him. Fucking useless Ted.

"I'm sorry, Char," he said finally, his voice hoarse from lack of use. "If I hadn't ... you'd still ..." He sighed, wiping away the tears that had managed to escape. He placed his hand on the stone that acted like a gravestone for Charlotte. The twin stone next to it marked Sam's burial place. Ted hated having to bury them next to each other, but it's what Charlotte would have wanted. "If there was any good in the two of us, it was all you."

Ted paused, almost waiting for a response. None came, as expected, but the silence still hurt. He stared down at his broken earbuds, the one form of escapism he had left. Rule number one was that no music could be played anywhere on the professor's property in case it attracted any of the infected. The earbuds were what held Ted together. Being able to listen to his favorite cast recordings for hours blocked out the silence and kept the demons at bay. Now that that was gone, he was forced to confront his own guilt. 

"You miss her, don't you?"

Ted looked up, surprised to see the professor strolling toward him. He hadn't seen the man in ... two weeks? At least. Not since they buried Charlotte. 

"What are you doing out here?"

The professor shrugged. "Emma kicked me out of the lab. Said I needed to 'blow off some steam' whatever that means. She suggested a game of ping-pong with Alice, but that girl is far too good at ping-pong." 

Ted let a small smile play at the corners of his lips. Bill and him had teamed up earlier that week to try to finally bring Alice down, but she beat them right out of the gates. He supposed the professor's house did have its perks, mainly the full bar and the rec room in the basement. Ted couldn't imagine being trapped in his own apartment. He couldn't imagine being alone. He isolated from the other survivors, but he needed them more than anything. 

"You must have really cared for her," the professor remarked. 

So they were still on Charlotte? "I guess," Ted said, not really in the mood to talk about Charlotte, but it didn't seem the professor was going to let up. He sighed. "She knew me. At least I think she did. She saw something good in me and I ... I just wanted to see that in myself, y'know? Because if someone like her could be around someone like me, then maybe there was hope for me. Maybe there was something there that everyone else missed." Ted shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe she was a fool. Maybe there was nothing good there."

The professor sat down beside him, crossing his legs and staring up at the house at the top of the hill. "There will always be people like Charlotte who see the good in everyone. But for what it's worth, I don't think she was wrong."

"You don't know me."

"No, but I know Emma and I trust her decisions. You came with Emma, therefore I trust you."

Ted scoffed. "Emma hates me. I don't blame her for it, either."

"I wouldn't be so hard on yourself, Ted," the professor said, patting him lightly on the shoulder before standing up to leave. He brushed the dirt off his pants and sallied off to the garden shed. 

"Wait!" Ted said before the professor could get too far. "Sorry, but do you maybe have any extra earbuds?"

"Always, my boy," the professor grinned, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a neatly wrapped pair of headphones. "Here, take these."

"I don't want to put you out—"

"Nonsense. I stockpiled for this exact scenario. I have ten more upstairs. I just carry these around to use while my bluetooth headphones are charging. Remarkable devices, they are."

"Uh, yeah, sure," Ted laughed. The professor was so out-of-touch with the world it was almost funny. 

Ted plugged the earbuds into his android and smiled as the sweet melodies of the Sound of Music drowned out the silence raging in his head. His guilt could wait for another day. 

The earbuds he borrowed from the professor proved instrumental in keeping Ted's mental health stable. He stayed up until five that morning, one arm draped over the edge of the couch with his phone in his hand, the cord just a little to short to charge the phone and let Ted watch bootlegs in a comfortable position. He normally felt at least a little bad about watching bootlegs, but it was the end of the world as he knew it, and the rules didn't apply anymore. 

Speaking of rules, there were twenty so far, and they were written neatly in Emma's handwriting on the whiteboard that hung in the kitchen. Rule Number One: No music, no singing. Below that, Rule Number Two: no leaving. No excessive drinking (the alcohol has to last) was below that, and the list continued on. Some of the rules were helpful in maintaining order, others seemed petty, such as Rule Number Seventeen: Thou shalt not put thy shoes on the coffee table, Ted. Emma had been drunk when she wrote that one, but when she sobered up, she stood by her statement, and so the rule remained. 

Ted had gotten used to the comforting darkness of the living room where he slept. It didn't have much privacy in the daytime, but he could stay up all night and the space was his. It was a rather open floor-plan, with the kitchen and living room joined together, and a dining room shooting off from the kitchen. During the daytime, it was the busiest place in the house, which was why Ted often escaped to the outdoors, but at night, it belonged to Ted. He never left the couch, though. He laid there with his arm outstretched, the bright light from his phone giving him the distraction he needed. 

He was half-asleep in front of a bootleg of the Book of Mormon when a light turned on in the kitchen. Ted stirred, keeping the drowsiness at bay to see a very enthusiastic-looking professor busying himself in the kitchen. Ted yawned and sat up, pushing the blankets off of him. 

"Oh dear," the professor said once he noticed Ted. "I didn't mean to wake you."

"You haven't," Ted yawned. "I haven't gone to sleep yet."

"Really?" The professor looked intrigued by the man's odd sleeping habits. "Quite extraordinary."

Ted pulled himself up from the couch and threw one of the rugged blankets around his shoulders. It was yet another sign of just how much his friends cared for him. The professor's house wasn't meant to hold this many people, so Ted ended up with the most uncomfortable couch and the worst of the blankets. 

"Why are you up so early?" Ted asked, plopping down at one of the stools at the kitchen island. The professor pulled a box of cereal down from the cabinet. "Fix me a bowl of that too, wouldja?"

The professor grabbed two bowls, and thankfully was human enough to pour the cereal first. "I'm always up this early. I was just peckish this morning," he explained. "You know what they say. A full day of work keeps the monsters at bay." His joke wasn't very funny.

"I thought a full day of sleeping and a full night of drinking did that," Ted remarked, digging into his cereal. 

"You know, you could busy yourself around here," the professor said, ignoring his remark. "If you're ever looking for something to do. It's about time to get to planting but I've been so busy in the lab I haven't gotten out. Paul and Bill have been out there the past few days getting the gardens ready for planting. They could use a hand."

The idea of planting made Ted uncomfortable. Like they had already given up. They were never getting out of the professor's house. Still, it would give him something to do, and having a purpose around here could ease up the pain of the situation. 

"I'll think about it," he told the professor. 

"Good. You should get some sleep, Ted. I'll see you, uh, later today. Good morning, I guess."

Ted chuckled. "Yeah. Good morning."

Ted got a solid three hours of sleep that morning, and the next day proved to be a turning point for him. He began helping Bill and Paul in the extensive gardens the professor had cultivated in his backyard. He had a rather large backyard, which Ted was forever grateful for. The large wall and electric fencing surrounded the entire property, so they could roam freely with no fear of the singing infected. The professor's house was at the top of a small hill of a relatively shallow incline at the end of a gravel driveway, and the front of the house had some of the most beautiful flower gardens Ted had ever seen, though he didn't spend much time admiring flower gardens. Charlotte's tree and the two graves were at the base of the hill near the gate, and around the other side of the property was the small garden shed and the rows and rows of raised beds that Paul and Bill had spent the past few days tilling and weeding.

Ted joined in, and it was a relief to get his hands dirty and do something helpful for once. He hadn't done this kind of thing since he was a kid and worked on the local farm, but he was on the harvest crew and didn't have much experience with planting. Bill red the instructions on each of the seed packets carefully, and they did their best to plant each of the seeds in the proper spacing, at the proper time of year, and in the correct beds as per the professor's instruction. 

Working in the gardens with the boys pulled Ted out of the funk he had been in after Charlotte's death and he found himself feeling hopeful again. He slept better at night, and was able to relax. The guilt was still there, but it wasn't the only thing on his mind. He did his part of keep the professor's house orderly (vacuuming and cleaning the kitchen and living room, for instance) and he pitched in with washing the dishes three or four nights a week. The crew fell into a bit of a rhythm, and Ted started to realize there wasn't another group of fools he would rather be stuck in the apocalypse with.


	2. Enjoy the Little Things

They were now four weeks into the apocalypse, and it was evident no help would be coming. Bill had been able to get in contact with Alice's mother in Clivesdale and called her weekly, but no one believed her when she said there were still people alive in Hatchetfield. With infected still roaming the streets, the government had chosen to forsake Hatchetfield and decided to leave it alone until the infected died off of their own accord, or got desperate enough to try to swim to the mainland. 

The crew of survivors, at least for now, were entirely on their own. Ted found little ways to keep himself busy. After the eighteenth time watching the film Zombieland, one of the few DVDs the professor had to play on his old box TV, Ted had decided to add Rule Number Twenty-One: Enjoy the Little Things to the list of rules in the kitchen. Emma didn't understand the point of that rule, and she didn't think it really sounded like a rule at all, but Paul knew what it meant to Ted, so he convinced her to add it.

The professor had been spending far too much time in the lab, only resurfacing occasionally for the nightly dinners Bill and Alice would prepare together. Eventually Emma locked him out of the lab until he could find one side project he had to at least do a little work on each day to get him out of the lab. Ted had no idea what he decided to work on, but he seemed happier and was coming to dinner with the family more often.

Family. What a word to use. They weren't really a family, but it felt like that sometimes. They had to be to get through. 

Ted was wandering the halls of the professor's house, bored on a Monday afternoon (or was it Wednesday? Time had ceased to exist) when he heard a frustrated "fuck" from upstairs. It sounded like the professor, and he hurried up the stairs to make sure he was okay. He found the professor at the bottom of a ladder up to the attic with a large box full of painting supplies.

"You okay?" Ted asked.

"Oh," the professor said, surprised to see him. "Yes. Just dropped the box on my foot is all. What are you doing up here?"

"Just wandering. Do you need a hand?"

"Um, sure." The professor didn't seem so sure. "There's another box at the top of the ladder if you'd like to grab that."

Ted climbed the ladder and grabbed the other box and followed the professor down two flights of stairs and outside. 

"Why are we bringing this paint outside?" Ted asked, confused. 

"You'll see," the professor said. "Promise you won't tell anyone?"

"Sure," Ted agreed. He was curious as to what the professor was up to and was more confused than ever when the professor walked into the garden shed. 

The shed looked completely different than it had a week ago. All of the tools had been moved out or had been hung on pegs outside the shed. The grimy window had been cleaned so light finally shown inside, and the broken light fixture had been fixed. The floor was swept clean and any holes in the wall had been spackled and sanded down. 

"What is this?" Ted asked, spinning around to take in the shed. It was a small space, but felt much bigger without all the stuff in it.

"It's for Alice," Professor Hidgens explained. "The poor girl has been cooped up in that house with no space of her own. She's sharing the guest room with her father, after all. That can't be fun. So I'm converting the shed into a space for her to get away from you goons."

Ted was awestruck. "That's actually ... really cool. Can I help?" He didn't want to take over the professor's project, but he was genuinely in love with the idea. Alice hadn't been herself recently, and he missed the little girl he used to babysit. The professor was absolutely right in thinking she needed her own space. 

"I could use an extra set of hands," the professor admitted.

"Cool!" Ted said, grabbing a paint roller. "Which wall are we hitting first?"

The two spent the rest of the afternoon painting a pink cream color across three of the walls. The final wall they did a particularly fun shade of red to give a nice accent to the room. Ted had never spent that much time with the professor, and he surprisingly didn't hate it. The two had a lot to talk about, and the time passed quickly. 

That night at dinner, it felt nice to have a secret between the two of them, something they shared that the rest didn't know about. 

The second day, they did the final layer of paint, then went their separate ways. Ted spent the afternoon in the rec room watching shows with Alice and Bill, and Professor Hidgens returned to his lab. 

On the third day, Ted and Professor Hidgens met in the attic, going through old things the professor had lying around that Alice might want. Hidgens had compiled his collection of fabrics and sewing materials to give to her, and they spent almost half an hour cleaning up and dusting off an old sewing machine to move into the room. They found a tall mirror up there they decided would look good mounted on the wall, and they gathered a box of various other knickknacks they thought Alice would enjoy. 

Professor Hidgens didn't step foot in the lab the entire day, too preoccupied with his project. They made several trips back in forth before being caught in the hallway carrying an armchair.

"Do I want to know?" Alice asked, raising one eyebrow.

"Definitely not," Ted assured her. She cast them another odd glance, then walked away as if nothing happened. The two men turned each other and burst out laughing, entertained by the absurdity of the situation Alice had caught them in.

"I wonder what she thinks we're doing," the professor speculated.

The two moved the armchair into the shed, placing it in the corner of the shed. On the far wall, they hung up the mirror and strung up white Christmas lights along the line where the wall met the ceiling. 

"It's actually coming together really nicely, Professor," Ted remarked, looking back at their handiwork. 

"Please, it's Henry."

Ted looked at the professor, surprised. "Ok, Henry." Trying out the name felt new and right. And for some reason raised butterflies in Ted's stomach. "So what's next?"

"I've got a rug we can lay out and then I think we can get the rest of this stuff laid out," Henry said, and they made one final trip to the house. The rug was striped with various shades of red and pink, which matched the walls well. 

Unfortunately, night was falling and they had to lock up the shed for the night and return to the house for dinner.

"What have you two been up to all day?" Emma asked as she passed Ted the potatoes. 

"Oh, nothing much," Ted said, shoveling the mashed potatoes onto his plate. 

Emma let it slide.

Ted was woken up early the next morning by a very excited Henry Hidgens making himself breakfast. 

"Sorry, was I too loud?" he asked as Ted dragged himself off the couch. 

"Not at all," Ted said, rubbing his eyes to wake up. He had hoped for a few more hours of sleep, but his sleep could wait.

"Last night I kept getting more and more ideas. I went up to the attic and found all my old books from when I was Alice's age, and then I realized she's gotta have shelves, so I took the shelves out of my closet and thought we could put them up on the wall, the only problem is I'm not very good at installing stuff like that. Oh, and I found this bomb Zefron I thought she might enjoy—Lesbians still appreciate Zefron, right?—and anyway, I got to digging around and I found my old pride flag from when I used to get out for all those events, y'know, and thought it might fill up some of that open space on the walls."

Henry was talking a mile a minute, and it was hard for Ted to take in everything he was saying, especially since he had just woken up. The only thing he was able to comprehend from the jumble of words was that Henry used to go to pride parades.

"Yeah, that sounds great," Ted said, stumbling to the coffee machine. "Just give me a minute to wake up and I'll help you out."

"Thank you so much for helping me out with this," Henry said, jumping up and sitting on the kitchen island. Literally sitting on the counter. Ted supposed it was his house and he could do what he pleased, but the professor seemed so organized and very much not a sit-on-the-counter kind of person. 

"No problem, man. I need a distraction too." Ted realized he hadn't been to Charlotte's grave all week. Was that a good thing? It felt like a good thing. Ted was certainly happier than he had been in a while, including the time before the apocalypse. 

It took them only until midday to finish the room. They had moved Henry's old desk in too, and while it was small, it felt homey.

"Do you think she'll like it?" Henry asked, examining their handiwork. "I don't know her as well as you do."

Ted looked at the room. Henry had gotten it spot on. The lights, the colors, the sewing machine, the armchair, the desk, the shelves drilled into the wall that Ted had helped install, the assortment of books, the pride flag hanging on the wall ... all of it. Perfect. "She's gonna love it," he assured him. 

"Aw, thank you," Henry said excitedly, jumping up and hugging the shorter man. Ted was knocked back, surprised by the gesture. Henry didn't think much of it, and skipped off to the house. "Well? Come on! Let's show her!"

The man was so giddy with happiness that Ted couldn't help but smile. He followed the professor back to the house, where they found Alice in yet another game of ping-pong against Paul with Emma cheering from the sidelines. 

"Hell yeah! That's my girl!" Emma whooped.

"You call Paul your girl?" Ted asked.

"Who gives a shit about Paul. Fuck that guy. I'm cheering for Alice. That's a goddamn ping-pong player if I've ever seen one."

Ted grinned. 

"Hey Alice," the professor piped up. "Mind if we borrow you for a minute? We've got something to show you."

"Please," Paul begged. "Take her away, I beg you. I cannot handle this game anymore!"

"Hold up," Emma said. "I want to see what it is too. You guys have been acting real fishy lately. I figured you were just banging but if this is about Alice—"

Just banging? Where did Emma get that idea from? 

The posse followed Henry and Ted out to the shed.

"What are we doing here?" Alice asked.

"Just wait for it," Henry said, and he flung open the shed door dramatically. "It's all yours."

Alice stepped inside, awed. "You guys did this?" She spun around taking it all in. "I can't believe— holy shit, is that a pride flag! Hell yeah!" She ran to Henry and gave him a hug. "Thank you so much." She gave Ted a hug too. "You guys are the best."

"Rule Number Twenty-one," Ted pointed out. "Enjoy the little things." Like making your friends happy. Like spending time with the professor. Like being a better person than he was before. 


	3. No Leaving

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Supplies run low and they need to restock. Also they get a kitten.

They were five weeks into the apocalypse, and life had become normalized. Bill had been the one to call the group together for an emergency meeting. There was a tremor in his voice that let it known how scared he was. 

"What is this about?" Emma asked.

"We're running out," Bill said.

"What?" Ted asked. 

Henry sighed. "I saw this coming. I had plenty stockpiled, but I didn't foresee having six people living here. Very well then. I'll head out in the morning."

"I'm coming too," Ted said. 

"Not a chance. I've prepared for this for years. I'll go on my own."

"You needed my help installing shelves. I'm coming."

The two bickered for a while while the others watched with amused expressions on their faces.

"I'm ordained if you want me to officiate your wedding," Bill offered.

"I call Best Man!" Paul said, raising his hand to call dibs.

"I'm obviously Professor Hidgens' maid of honor," Emma said.

"Shit. What do I get to be?" Alice asked. 

Henry's face turned red, and Ted's turned even redder. "I'm not going to even begin to comprehend what that means," Hidgens said. 

Ted tried to quickly veer away from the awkward conversation. "So Henry and I leave in the morning. That's settled."

"I'm coming too," Paul said. 

"No, Paul—" Emma started.

"I can handle it," he said. "Besides, they're going to need an extra set of hands. I got Bill and Alice home safe, didn't I?"

That was the first time anyone had referred to this place as home. In a way, it was true. It had to be, if they were going to survive here. 

When morning came, Hidgens, Ted, and Paul loaded up into the squad car, the first two carrying guns, the last wielding a frying pan because he claimed he was "more comfortable with a bashy-bashy weapon than a pew-pew one."

For the first time since Hidgens had let Emma and her motley crew of friends into his property, Hidgens opened the gates and they slipped out.

They were surprised to find the street outside empty. The cars that lined the street were empty and hadn't been used in some time. Everything was silent except for the purr of the engine. It was a strange sensation. It wasn't yet the post-apocalyptic town that you see in the movies. There was still life to the town, the life just hadn't been there for several weeks. Like the town was still freshly dead. 

"Where are they all?" Paul asked, staring out the backseat window in awe. 

"They're waiting," Henry said ominously.

"For what?" Paul asked.

"For ... for us. I thought that was obvious."

"It was," Ted assured him. "Paul's just a dumbass."

"Hey!" he protested.

Ted turned around to face the little kid in the backseat of the cop car. "You're my friend but that doesn't stop you from being a dumbass in my eyes."

Paul rolled his eyes.

"Here we are," Henry announced, pulling into the parking lot of a supermarket and rolling right up to the door. "Now, before we go in, we need to know our exits. There's one on the left side of the building, and another if you go through the back to where they load from the trucks. You guys ready? Weapons? Bags?"

"Can we get marshmallows?" Paul asked. 

Henry sighed. Paul really was a child. "Yes, Paul. We can get marshmallows. We'll grab a decent stock of non-perishables, but grab all the perishables you can so we can eat those before they go bad. We can make more runs for the nonperishables later. I'll take bread, Paul, you take fruits and vegetables, Ted—"

"Dairy and frozen goods."

"Exactly. Anything else we might need, pick it up. We'll meet back at the front in fifteen minutes, tops. If anything goes wrong in there—"

"It won't," Ted assured him. 

"Alright, boys. Let's do this." Henry grabbed his gun and exited the vehicle. Ted and Paul followed suit. 

Ted had almost slipped into a domestic life in the professor's home. It was almost as if the apocalypse hadn't happened. They were regaining normal. Now they were thrown back into the thick of it. If Ted so much as heard one note he was going to lose it. 

He grabbed a cart and walked straight to the dairy section, checking each aisle he passed for musical infected. Nothing. He let out a sigh of relief once he made it to the dairy section safely and began bagging everything they could possibly need. They weren't paying for this shit, right? It didn't matter what he took. Most of the expiration dates were old, but he took what he could. He passed the pharmaceuticals on his way back to the front and decided to load up on drugs in case anything happened and they needed painkillers. He stared at the feminine products aisle, staring at the sea of products. He guessed the professor's house wasn't very well equipped for feminine needs. He wasn't sure what to get, so he grabbed a couple things of pads and a bunch of boxes of tampons. The sizing confused him. Everything about this confused him. But he wasn't paying for anything, so he grabbed whatever could fit in a bag. 

Ted wandered, filling up bags with chips, salsa, cans of tuna—anything he could get his hands on. He was in the freezer aisle picking through bags of peas when he was caught.

"Get your hands up."

The voice was tough, but it was that of a girl's. Young. Ted turned his head to see a young girl in a baseball cap pointing a gun at him. 

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Ted said, putting his hands up. "Please don't shoot me. Please."

"How many of there are you?" the girl demanded, jabbing her gun forward.

"J-just me," Ted lied. Maybe he shouldn't be scared of a little girl, but she had a gun. Oh shit, he had a gun too. He slowly set down the bags of groceries and reached for the gun on his belt.

"Don't you think about it or I'll shoot you right now."

"Hold up, just so we're on the same page, you're infected right?" Ted said. She hadn't started singing yet, so he had to be sure.

"Of course not. I thought you were."

Ted shook his head. "I'm still me."

She lowered her gun a little. "Prove it. Sing."

Ted unfortunately couldn't think of anything other than Moana, so he attempted to remember what he could, but he was at a loss. 

"That was shit," the girl said, lowering her weapon completely. "I thought I was the only one."

Thank god, another survivor! "How old are you?" Ted asked. She looked maybe only—

"Ten."

Holy shit. "What happened to your family?"

"I was in the mall when it happened. Ethan told me to hide and ... they just never came back."

"How have you made it five weeks on your own?" Ted asked.

"I could ask the same of you."

"I'm not alone," Ted explained. "I have two other friends in this store right now stocking up. We're living with this kookie reclusive biology professor. His whole house is like a panic room. You could come with us."

"Really?" 

She looked so bewildered that he would offer such a thing.

"Of course. We've gotta look out for each other right? Have you seen anyone else who's still alive?"

She shook her head. "I've been hiding mostly. I don't go out much."

"Well, come on kid. I'll introduce you to the gang and we can get you to the professor's house. The name's Ted, by the way."

"Hannah."

"Nice to meet you, Hannah." Ted was going to have a really hard time shooting this girl if she turned out to be infected.

Professor Hidgens pulled a gun on her as soon as they met up at the front of the store. "Sing the first sixteen bars of Moana!"

"What is it with you people and Moana? It's not even that good—"

"Not even that good?!" Henry looked personally offended. 

Hannah stumbled through a couple measures until Henry was satisfied.

"Trust me," Ted said. "She's okay. I told her she could stay with us."

Henry's face softened. "Of course. Are you all alone?"

She nodded.

"Cool baseball hat," Paul said awkwardly, always uncomfortable around kids. 

"Cool frying pan."

Henry smiled. "I like this one."

They shoved all the bags in the back of the squad car as best they could and piled in, Hannah and Paul in the backseat, even more bags piled on their laps and in between their legs. The same "sing sixteen bars of Moana" dance happened when they introduced Hannah to the rest of the group, but they welcomed her in with welcoming arms. 

While Bill and Henry busied themselves with stocking the pantry and cabinets and throwing all the meat in the freezer, Ted took Hannah on a tour of the house. 

"We'll have to ask Henry where there's room for you to sleep. We're kind of full up. Henry's got his room on the top floor, and Emma and Paul have been crashing on the couches in the rec room. Bill and Alice sleep in the guest bedroom on the second floor and I've been crashing on the living room couch. I'm sure Henry will find room for you." 

Upon finishing the tour of the house, Ted took her outside and showed her the gardens, the shed, and Charlotte's tree. 

"Do you think my family's dead?" Hannah asked, staring down at the unmarked graves.

"Maybe," Ted admitted. "But you can't let stuff like that get to you. You can't make any assumptions. Maybe they'll turn up."

Their conversation was interrupted by a pitiful meowing. 

"Did you hear that?" Ted asked, whirling around to find the source of the noise. 

"Hear what?" Hannah asked.

"That sound! There's a cat around here somewhere." The sound came again. Ted stared at the closed gate. "It's gotta be out there. Hang on." He ran back to the house and found Henry. "We've gotta open the gates!"

"What's wrong? What happened? Why are you out of breath?"

Aw, he was concerned. Snap out of it, Ted. "There's a cat outside. We've gotta let it in."

"Well hold on. We don't know if animals can get infected," Henry countered.

Ted stared at him dumbfounded. "What, you think the cat's gonna start fucking singing at us?"

The professor shrugged. "That's the problem. We don't know. He could be a spy for the hive."

"It's a fucking cat. Please!" Ted begged.

Henry probably wouldn't have said yes if it were anyone else. "Fine. Alexa, open the gate."

The two ran outside and watched the gates creak open. Hannah joined them, and they looked around, but there was no cat in sight.

"Maybe you were just hearing things," Hannah suggested.

"There!" Ted said, pointing at a tree. "It's stuck up there!" A small black kitten was curled up in a tree. How he had gotten all the way up there, Ted would never know, but he reached up and carefully brought the kitten down, cradling the skittish thing in his arms. 

"Oh, that must be one of my neighbor Cathy's kittens," Henry said. "Her cat was pregnant before the meteor hit. She must have had her kittens weeks ago."

"I'm gonna name him Robert," Ted said, nuzzling the poor kitten. "I love him so much."

"I don't have the tools to care for a kitten," Henry said. "You need cat litter and food and toys—"

"Then we'll go out tomorrow and pick some up. We survived one excursion, and look where it got us. Now we have two new friends." He held out Robert to Henry. "Look at those eyes. Can you resist?"

Henry reached out and hesitantly petted the cat. "I suppose he can stay."


	4. No Man Left Behind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tom, Tim, and others make an entrance

Emma stared up at the ceiling, lost in thought as she laid stiffly on the rec room couch, yearning for sleep to take her away from the thoughts in her head. 

"Emma?"

"Yes Paul?"

"Do you think there are others? Other survivors?"

Emma sat up and looked over at the couch where Paul slept. "Maybe. I can't live with myself if I don't check." She stood up and threw on more reasonable clothes for a night escapade. 

"Whoa, hold up," Paul said, untangling himself from the blankets. "What are you doing?"

"If there's any chance they're still alive, I need to find them."

"Find who?"

"Tom and Tim. He's an asshole, but he's the asshole Jane married—" Emma was rummaging through her bags, clipping a flashlight to her belt, pocketing her wallet (that was useless now, why did she even bother?) and making sure her phone was charged (it wasn't). "And Tim's my nephew. I just couldn't bare it if I never looked."

"Okay," Paul said. "Okay. I'm in."

"No, Paul. It's too dangerous out there."

"Why does everyone think I can't handle myself?" he complained. "I'm equally as capable as—as Ted or Bill. I went out earlier and we're all still here."

"Fine. You can come. But pick a better weapon than a frying pan. That thing's fucking useless."

Paul smiled. "I made it just this afternoon." He pulled out a small weapon from under his pillowcase. "It's a hammer-knife! A knife duct-taped to a hammer!"

"You kept that under your pillow?" Emma exclaimed, exasperated. "What if you rolled over in the middle of the night and impaled yourself."

"If I was that stupid, do you think I would've made it this far?"

"We made it this far. You'd be hopeless on your own. Just shut up and follow me. We don't want anyone knowing we're leaving."

The two snuck upstairs only to be caught immediately by a still-awake Ted playing with his new kitten.

"What the fuck do you think you two are doing?" he asked, looking at their weapons.

"What are we doing? What are you doing? Why are you still up?"

"It's fucking eleven thirty. You know you guys can't open the gates."

"Try to stop us," Emma fought.

"Oh, no. I won't. I'm coming with." Ted picked up Robert and placed him in the cardboard box they had lined with blankets for him. "I've gotta leave anyway to pick up cat stuff for this little guy. I'll surprised Henry and have it all taken care of before he wakes up."

"You call him Henry?" Emma asked.

"Yeah? Why is that surprising."

Emma shrugged. "He just doesn't usually like people calling him that."

The three snuck out as silently as they could, but there was nothing they could do to quiet the sound of the squad car engine starting and the gates sliding open. They closed the gates behind them and drove into the night, this time Ted shoved in the backseat. 

"Where are we going anyway?" Ted asked.

"I've gotta know if my nephew and brother-in-law are alive," Emma said.

"They're probably no—" Ted stopped himself. He had to have hope. Emma needed hope. "They're probably not infected," he said.

"Thanks Ted," she said, knowing full well what he intended to say prior to his revised statement. 

To make Ted happy, they stopped at the pet store on the way to Tom's house, but only Ted got out. He said he could handle himself, and they thought it was best if they weren't all caught in the same spot. Ted got in and out quick, staying as silent as possible, though he was honestly scared out of his mind. In the dark, they could be anywhere. The cat food was heavy and he had to grab a cart to wheel it out to the squad car, but they quickly went on their way.

Emma drummed her fingers on the wheel as she drove, obviously anxious. Paul and Ted stared out the window in silence, looking for any sign of the infected. Where were they? They turned a corner and the streets were lined with dead bodies PEIP must have taken out before they themselves got infected. 

Emma pulled into the Houston's driveway and turned the car off. She took a deep breath. "Here we go."

Paul placed his hand on top of hers. "Remember, even if they're not there it doesn't mean they're infected. They could be hiding somewhere else."

The three grabbed their weapons and walked up to the house, Ted bringing up the rear and scanning for hidden infected. Paul clenched his hammer-knife, ready to bust some skulls if he had to.

Emma tried the doorknob, but it was locked. "Anybody know how to pick a lock?" She stared at Ted.

"Why do you think I would know?" he said with a shrug. 

Emma scowled. "We'll try the back door."

Ted held back a sleazeball comment and they walked to the other side of the house. 

"Wait," Emma said, pointing to a small window into the basement. "There's a light." She crouched down and stared through the small window. "There's people in there."

"Tom?" Paul asked.

"No. I don't recognize them." There was a teenager in a pink retail vest tied to a chair and a boy sitting on the floor, leaning against the wall and staring at his phone. "She's tied up ... that's gotta mean he's still human."

Paul kneeled down and looked through. "Unless she's human and he's infected."

"He would have infected her already," Emma pointed out and without consulting the crew, rapped her knuckles on the window.

The boy, startled, looked up at the figures in the window. Frightened, he ran up the stairs.

"Great, Emma. You've scared him off," Paul said. "He probably thinks he's infected."

"Let's just go to the front door and knock," Emma suggested. "Do you have any better ideas?"

The group walked back around to the front of the house.

"I've got a very bad feeling about this," Ted whispered as Emma knocked on the door. 

"Who's there?" a gruff voice answered. 

"That's Tom!" Emma squealed. She had never been happier to hear that jackass's voice. "Tom, it's me, Emma. Are you infected?"

"Of course not, Emma. Are you?"

"Definitely not. We've been living with Professor Hidgens. I told you about him, right?"

"I don't know your friends' fucking names," Tom grunted. "Come in."

They heard the clicking of several locks being undone and the door swung open to reveal a gruff man in a red flannel pointing a gun at them. 

"Promise you're not infected?"

Emma raised her hands in surrender. "Promise. I'm not gonna sing to prove it because that'd attract them. Just trust me, Tom."

Tom nodded and let them in, latching the door and locking the several locks that adorned the door. He put his gun down and hugged Emma. "I thought we were the only ones."

"I thought we were the only ones. This is Ted and Paul, by the way. Who're those kids in your basement?"

"Two of my students." Tom raised his voice. "Ethan, you can come out. They're okay."

Ethan poked his head around the corner and joined the group. "You're sure they're not infected?"

"Positive." 

Ethan held out his hand to Emma, who he had already discerned as the leader. "Ethan Green."

"Emma Perkins," nice to meet you.

Ted looked the kid up and down. "Ted," he said, holding out his hand, and on a whim he added, "He/him." 

Ethan grinned. "Nice to meet you, Ted. I use they/them."

Paul looked at Ted, as if surprised he would know about pronouns. Ted shrugged. Charlotte used to ask about that type of shit and he got a vibe from his kid. 

"I'm Paul," he said, awkwardly holding his hand out for a handshake. "Uh, he/him."

"We should get out of here while it's still night," Emma said.

"Get out?" Tom asked.

"Yeah. The professor's house is the safest place to be right now. Trust me, Tom."

He looked unsure. They had made it five weeks in this place, but they had many close calls, and they could use a safer hideout. He nodded. "The sedan's out of gas. It won't get very far."

"We'll take the squad car," Emma said. "I was expecting just Tom and Tim if you guys were still alive, but we can double buckle and bring Ethan too. It'll be tight."

"I'm not leaving Lex," Ethan said. 

With the new name, Ted finally put two and two together. "Do you know a little girl named Hannah?" he asked.

Ethan's eyes widened. "Yes. How do you know her?"

"We found her in a supermarket earlier today," Ted explained.

"We didn't mean to leave her behind," Ethan said. "We've been looking everywhere for her, but Lex got infected and then Tom brought us here and when we went back the whole mall was overrun and we thought they got her—" They looked so upset, it made Ted's heart hurt a little.

"You should get back to her," he said. "I'll stay with Lex."

"Fuck Lex," Emma said. "I'm sorry guys, but if she's infected, she's gone. There's no saving her."

"I'm not abandoning her," Ethan said, "and that's final."

"It's fine, Emma," Ted said. "I'll stay here and you guys can come back for us."

Emma scowled. "Fine, Ted. You're breaking Rule Number Fourteen."

Ted rolled his eyes. "I know. No man left behind. But you're not leaving me behind. You're just picking me up on the next trip."

Tom looked at Ted gratefully and handed him a set of keys. "There. The keys to the house. Stay safe."

Ethan patted Ted on the back. "Thanks, man." Ethan disappeared to pack his stuff and Tom ran upstairs to wake up Tim.

"Listen guys," Ted said, turning to Paul and Emma. "It seems simple enough, but if I don't make it—"

"You'll be fine, Ted," Paul said. "We'll be back in no time."

Ted watched out the window as the squad car pulled out of the driveway. Taking care to lock all of Tom's many locks on the door, Ted turned away from the window and walked downstairs to the basement. He waited. And waited. It shouldn't have taken them any time at all. But they didn't come. 


	5. Don't Get Attached

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hidgens is mad and goes to save his boyfriend. I mean friend. Yeah they're just friends.

"What this fuck is this shit?" Hidgens yelled at the returning survivors as they got out of the squad car. "You leave in the middle of the night with no warning—"

Emma rolled her eyes. "Well you weren't supposed to be awake so we thought we'd get away with it."

"You would've if Hannah hadn't been unable to sleep because Webby kept her awake. She went looking for Ted. Seems she's taken quite a liking to him."

Ethan climbed out of the car. "She's still talking about her imaginary friend?"

Hidgens tried to mask his surprise at seeing a newcomer. "I assure you Webby is in no way imaginary." He turned to Emma. "Who is this?"

"Ethan, one of Tom's students."

"Do I want to know who Tom is?" the professor asked. Tom and Tim climbed out of the car. Hidgens looked at them, the head count not quite adding up. "Hold up. Where's Ted? He's not in the living room, I assumed he was with you."

"It's all under control," Emma assured him. "He stayed behind at Tom's house with Lex. She's infected, but tied down—"

"You left Ted behind with an infected?" If Emma didn't know him so well, she would have thought he was panicked. "You bumblefucks. He could be in danger."

"He volunteered to stay—"

"And you let him?"

"Professor, you need to calm down. Why are you so freaked out?"

"Alexa," Hidgens said. "Open the gates. Emma, hand over those keys. You get these three settled in and I will get Ted."

"You don't even know where Ted's house is."

"Give me the address, I'll put it in my phone. Remarkable things these devices can do."

Emma knew there was no reasoning with the professor, and she typed the address into his phone. "Be safe."

Hidgens mumbled a response and got into the squad car. He made sure he had a gun on him, and without a second thought, pulled out of the driveway. His navigation skills weren't up to par, and though google maps guided him, he became very, very lost. 

Lex opened her eyes and looked at the room around her. The voices in her head started up again. Sleep was her only relief. The voices telling her what to do, what to say, controlling her every action. It had all made sense at first. The hivemind. The collective goal. Lately the voices were getting scrambled, fading out then fading back in. She couldn't communicate to anyone the sudden change in circumstance, though she tried her best. She tried to tell Ethan time and time again, but the hivemind was too strong.

"Fight it, Alexandra," a voice in her head said, but it wasn't the hive. "You can do it. Think of Hannah."

When Lex opened her eyes, it wasn't Ethan there, which hurt. As she was breaking free from the hivemind, it helped to see them there. Instead, middle-aged man with a mustache sat in their spot. 

Lex opened her mouth to get his attention, but words wouldn't come out. Just a note. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Is—" another note. She could use this. "Is this what I lived for?" She had to do this quick, while she had some control over her body. Ethan wasn't here, which meant that they had gotten out or something had gone horribly horribly wrong. Either way, it was her way out. "To be tied in my teacher's home, while staring into hell."

The man looked at her, scared. 

"There's something that's beautiful, being awake for my funeral. You can close the casket now." Please. One shot in the head is all it takes. She couldn't stand the voices in her head anymore. 

"Lex, Lex, please shut up. You'll draw them here."

"The plans for my father's hopeless seed, born into moral poverty," Lex continued. "Still, I wasn't the angel heaven sent to break through my cliche boundaries." She couldn't help it. She couldn't hold back. She broke into a chorus, the words forming as she said them, some hivemind instructing her so. 

"You're gonna get us both killed," the man said.

"Is there some lesson to learn? Should I never have wanted? I never even got started. Or were the decks always just this stacked?"

The man peered out the window. "They're fucking coming. Shut the fuck up!"

Shoot me. Shoot me. "I mean it's really a godsend. Clear my plans for the weekend. But there's nothing to subtract." Lex was losing hold, slipping. The words weren't right.

"Lex, Lex. If you shut up we can survive this. I'm sorry," he said, shoving a rag in her mouth. 

She spat it out. "I don't want your half-baked sympathy. When did it save those in need? Still, I thought that angels did exist. Now I pray they plan to end it quick." The man didn't seem to get what she was saying. If she could only untie herself she could grab his gun and do it herself. 

"Be quiet!" the man snapped. "Think of Hannah." He ran to the door, barricading it an turning off the light. 

Hannah.

"At first I didn't know what she was to me. At first I didn't know why I cared or why I wanted to hold her and rock her to sleep. Did I need her more than she needed me?" Maybe ... no. "Maybe I'm wrong. She can go on her own, but I'm leaving—"

The man shoved the rag back in her mouth and clamped his hand over her mouth. 

Ted's heart was beating out of his chest in fear. Why had he chosen to stay behind? To do a good thing for once? To be a better person like Charlotte had wanted him to be? Maybe because that's what Charlotte would have done. 

There was a crash from upstairs and a lilting melody streamed through the house. "Do you want to play with me? Lovely girl, lovely girl?"

Ted shook in fear, knowing full well that if they had made it into the house, they'd make it into the basement in no time. He was already dead. Why had he gone to the one place there was no exit from? This was the end.

He backed away from Lex, letting his hands fall to his side. He had too many regrets to die now. Ironically enough, it took the apocalypse for him to turn his life around, and he was just getting started. He wanted to be there. He wanted to see Alice grow up. He wanted to see Emma and Paul finally work out. He wanted to spend more time with that odd professor. He needed to be there for Robert, and he had just met her, but he wanted to be there for Hannah.

Lex spat the rag out of her mouth, her voice joining the singing infected crawling through the house. "Let's play some games. Let's play some games today. Funny games. Some funny games today."

It was the most haunting song Ted had heard. There was a banging on the barricaded basement door, and Ted fumbled with the basement window. It was too small. He'd never get his shoulders through. He pulled out his gun, but he was never good with one of these. There's no way he could get out of here alive, but maybe, just maybe, he could take down enough of them with him so there were less around to threaten his friends.

The barricade caved in, and a redhead in a scrubs slowly descended the stairs, a military man following her, both illuminated by the light of the moon shining through the small window.

She paused at the bottom of the stairs and stopped singing, staring directly at Ted and his raised gun. The military man stopped to her left. They spoke in unison. "Well if it isn't Ted, Charlotte's friend. Charlotte served us well. You could serve us too." Lex's voice joined them. "Join us, Ted."

The nurse stepped forward, but the military man stayed back, his eyes locked on Lex. Ted kept his gun trained on the nurse who continued her promotion of the musical hivemind, but he kept his eyes trained on the military man. He and Lex stared at each other with intense concentration. 

"Alexandra," the man finally said. 

The nurse turned to him. "Don't listen to that stupid bitch."

"Who are you?" Lex asked with a moment of clarity. 

The military man pulled out his gun and pointed it at her, the gun shaking. Ted turned his gun on him, only to find that as soon as he did, the man shifted his weight to his other foot and swung his gun at the nurse, hitting her in the head and knocking her unconscious. The man stepped forward, and Ted stepped back, hitting the wall behind him. 

The man dropped his gun and held his hands out to Ted. "Tie me up while I still have clarity. The White has helped us for a moment but the Black will soon take over. Do you understand?"

Ted nodded and looked around for something to use. He was lucky enough to find the leftover rope from tying Lex and he used it to bind the military man. 

He could hear the rest of the infected upstairs still singing, and he picked up the gun the military man had dropped in case he ran out of bullets in the other one. There was the crunch of tires on gravel outside the house and a bright light from headlights shone through the window, illuminating the dark basement. 

Dammit. If that was more infected cops, Ted was dead meat in mere minutes. He heard gunshots from upstairs, and his fear began fading. They had made it. Emma and Paul came back for him. He didn't know why, but part of him thought they would've jumped at the chance to leave him behind and never have to deal with him again. 

It wasn't Paul or Emma that came down the stairs to the basement. The moonlight glanced of his greying hair and Ted's heart swelled with joy. As Henry reached the bottom of the stairs, Ted ran to him and wrapped him in a hug, his hand clutching the back of Henry's neck like the very heterosexual Finnpoe hugs. 

"You're alright?" Henry asked, caught off guard by the hug.

"Better now," Ted said, burying his face in Henry's shoulder, trying not to cry from the sheer relief of not dying. He didn't know why, but having Henry show up made him feel safe, and not just because he had prepared for his situation and was good with a gun.

"We have to get out of here," Henry said, not realizing he had grabbed Ted's hand.

"We've gotta bring these guys with us," Ted said, gesturing with his free hand to the two infected. "I think they might be able to break out of the hivemind."

Henry stared at them. "These two," he said with a small grin. "They've got what it takes to break out. You grab the girl, I've got John."

"You know him?" Ted asked.

"We have a common acquaintance." 

Ted grabbed Lex, who was in a dazed half-sleep. She was fairly light, and Henry seemed to be having a hard time holding up the military man, John, so Ted lifted Lex over his shoulder to the best of his ability and pulled John up with his other arm, helping Henry support him. Henry kept his gun in his free hand and they stumbled out of the basement, Henry shooting whatever infected came their way. 

They managed to get the two into the back of the squad car and buckled up (seatbelts are very important) and they climbed into the car, pulling out just as the last few infected scrambled out of the house after them.

Henry gunned it until they got a safe distance away, and he slowed down to the speed limit. He glanced in his rearview mirror to look at the sleeping people behind him. "Webby's holding them unconscious for now but she can't keep them like this forever. We should get home quick."

Ted didn't ask who Webby was. He had seen enough crazy shit to know Henry probably knew what he was talking about. "Why did you come back and not Paul or Emma?"

Henry stared blankly at the road before him. "I broke my own rule number one."

"You have your own set of rules?"

"Just one. Don't get attached. I came up with it when you guys knocked on my door. I solidified it into a rule when I saw you by that tree every day for weeks and—" he paused. "I lost some friends a while back. I can't lose you guys too."


	6. Honesty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John's husband is revealed and Lex is released. Henry's backstory is revealed.

It had been seven weeks now since the meteor crashed. Two weeks since they rescued Lex and the man Henry had identified as General John MacNamara. As the days continued, Lex was able to regain more and more control, and Henry was optimistic that in a few more days, it would be safe to let her out. The newcomers had fallen into a bit of a rhythm, and they had made another run out for supplies and had fought their way through an infested REI to pick up some tents, tarps, sleeping bags, and other supplies that would make the newcomers comfortable. Tom and Tim had pitched a tent outside and were sleeping there. Hannah and Ethan took over the living room, and Ted had moved to a tent in the backyard. It was a two-person tent, so he had a little room, but it wasn't an ideal living space. He couldn't charge his phone in there, for starters, so he had to either charge it during the day, or actually sleep at night. 

Ted had been spending a lot of time in Henry's lab recently. He wasn't any help there, but it was the only way he could get Ethan out of there. Lex and MacNamara were being held in a series of rooms shooting off of the lab. The door to the hallway was usually closed, and Ted had assumed it was a closet until Henry dragged Lex and MacNamara in there. It was a white hallway with seven adjacent rooms with bulletproof ceiling glass allowing a view inside. Each had a simple bed, toilet and sink. They had allowed Lex a few more luxuries as she broke free from the hivemind. Henry wasn't sure if it was because of her connection to what he called the Black and White or if anyone could break free after long enough away from the hive. They all hoped it was the latter. 

"Hey, Ted," Henry said, looking up from his work when Ted entered the lab.

"Hey Henry. Just giving Ethan a break." He entered the hallway, where Ethan sat on the floor across from Lex's room, half asleep. Ted grinned and looked into Lex's room. "How long have they been here?"

"Since 4 this morning," Lex said. "They didn't sleep well last night."

"I'm gonna get them to bed," Ted said, lifting Ethan up and carrying them to the living room, where he tucked them in on the couch. "Get some sleep, kid." They'd be able to get in a couple hours before they woke him up for dinner. 

Ted took his place watching over Lex and MacNamara. Ethan didn't like Lex being left alone, so Ted had promised them he'd watch over her whenever Ethan needed a break. Ted didn't mind. He liked the new kids they had living with them. He'd do anything to help them out. Plus, it gave him an excuse to talk to Henry. He could sit in the hallway and annoy Henry while he worked. 

Today was different. MacNamara had been silent for the most part, but he had managed to gain some clarity. 

"Sir," he said, rapping on the glass. "I need to make a phone call."

Ted stood up and walked to him. "How are you feeling?"

"Clear, for once. I'm going to need to borrow your telephone."

Henry, intrigued by the conversation, joined Ted in the hallway.

"Ah, the professor," MacNamara said. "I'd shake your hand if I could. I've heard great things about you."

"Likewise." Henry pulled out his phone. "I can't hand this to you, but I can put it on speaker if you'd like. Who would you like to call?"

"The president of the United States of America."

Ted scoffed. "What, are we just supposed to call the white house?"

"Of course not. His personal number. Only a few people have it, so he'll know it's me." Henry didn't question why MacNamara wanted to call the president or why he had the president's personal number, he simply dialed the number MacNamara gave him and put the phone on speaker. They waited patiently as the dial tone rang out.

"President Howard Goodman, who is this?"

Ted was dumbfounded. Who was this guy that he could call the president from a random phone and have him pick up?

"Howie, it's me," MacNamara said.

Howie? He called the president Howie?

"You bastard!" the president said, letting out a sigh of relief. "Don't ever do that to me again, John! You leave on some important mission in the middle of the night to a town we've now deserted and you go seven weeks without a word. I thought you had died. You can't just leave like that—"

Was the president choked up? Ted was beyond confused at this point.

"I'm really sorry. There was a meteor and—I promise it won't happen again. I got infected, but I'm getting better. I only have a few minutes before it takes over again, I just needed to let you know I'm alive and I needed to hear your voice."

"That's sweet. I'm still mad."

"I'll cook you a homemade dinner when I get home," MacNamara promised.

"And when will that be?" the president asked.

John sighed. "I don't know, babe, but I'm coming home."

"John?"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"I know."

The president sounded annoyed. "We've talked about this."

John laughed. "I know. I love you too, How."

"Come home soon, John."

"I'm trying my best. It could be months."

"Should I send a team in?" Howard asked.

"No. Me and a few of my peeps should be able to sort this out. Just don't forget me—"

"I'd never."

"—and keep up with the work. Don't let us down."

"I won't, John."

"I love you," MacNamara said, and gestured for Henry to hang up. He sat back in his bed, exhausted. "I'm losing control. Thank you for helping."

"Hold up," he said, "are you dating the president?"

"He's my husband, actually," John said, holding up his hand to show the ring.

"Do I just live under a rock? How did I not know we got our first gay president?" Ted asked.

"There've been gays before him," John said, "and it's not public information. Do you think he would have been elected if people had known?"

Ted had to admit it was a long shot. He was a little jealous. Not particularly because he was married to the president of the United States (Ted thought he was a bit of dumbass. He hadn't voted for him) but because he had someone. Ted found himself glancing over at Henry. He had to admit he admired the man, and there was no explanation for the butterflies he felt in his stomach every time he saw him or why he actively sought out his company. 

"You alright?" Henry asked with an awkward smile. 

Ted snapped out of it. "Yeah, I'm good."

Two days later, they held a party to celebrate Lex's release. They all needed something to celebrate, and this seemed as good an occasion as any. They set up card tables in the backyard, strung up the twinkle lights from Alice's shed, and Alice, Bill, Emma, and Paul threw together a potluck style meal. They even managed to string up a volleyball net Henry had lying around. 

"It's good to see you smiling," Ted said, sidling up next to Henry, who stood at the edge of the festivities, delicately holding his wine glass. Ted was drinking Hawaiian punch from a red solo cup. 

"I smile a lot," Henry said, smiling at him. He mostly smiled around Ted, he had to admit.

"You're just so busy in the lab of yours. Since Lex arrived you've barely stopped for a breath of fresh air. You've gotta take care of yourself, man." 

Henry didn't want to tell him that the last time he had done that, bad things had happened. He couldn't risk that again. "Well you've got me out now." 

"Ted!" Hannah said, excitedly pulling on his sleeve. "C'mon, you're on my team."

"Sorry," Ted said, putting his cup on the table and following Hannah. "Catch up with you later?"

"Yeah," Henry sighed. 

In Ted's opinion, the volleyball teams were very unfair. He was put on a team with Hannah, Lex, and Ethan, which seemed like it would be a good team, only the other team consisted of Alice, Tim, Tom, and Paul, who Emma had forced into playing. Paul wasn't much of a kid's guy. He wasn't great with them.

Emma joined Henry watching the volleyball match and they stood there in silence for a few minutes, watching the teams haphazardly try to cooperate. Ted looked like he was having the time of his life. 

"You know, Ted would make a great dad," Emma remarked.

"I'm a little old for kids," Henry said absentmindedly, busy watching Ted spike the ball over the net and directly into Bill's face. 

Emma turned to him with a smirk. "That's not what I was implying, but it's interesting that that's where you went." She winked and sallied off. "I'm gonna sub in for Paul. He's hopeless."

Henry's face was entirely red. The game ended with a clean sweep by Alice's team. She was equally good at volleyball as she was at ping-pong. 

Henry stood in his same spot, hoping Ted would come back at least to retrieve his drink, but he didn't. He hung out with the rest of the group, chatting and frolicking and playing with the kids. 

Henry gave up on the whole party idea and left without a word, finding himself once again back in his lab. Work had worn him out, and the social interaction, or lack thereof, even moreso, so instead of getting back to work, he sat down in front of his phone and scrolled through the New York times. He was only there about ten minutes before he had a visitor.

"I thought we talked about you spending all your time in the lab," Ted joked upon entering. He peered over Henry's shoulder at his phone. "You're not even working. Are you really just in here avoiding people?"

"Maybe," Henry said, pocketing his phone and turning to face his friend.

"Why'd you leave?" Ted asked, sitting on the stool next to him and leaning back against the lab table. 

"No one wanted me there in the first place."

"Hey! Drop that attitude right now!"

"It's true. Would any of you be friends with me if Emma hadn't brought you all here?"

"No," Ted said. "But that doesn't change anything. We're friends now, and it's one of the greatest things to ever happen to me."

Henry bit his lip, trying to hold back any feelings he had for the man sitting next to him. He couldn't afford that right now. "I can't have friends right now," he said. "I can't lose again."

"Again?" Ted asked. 

Henry stood up and led him to the hallway. He pointed at the first room that had held Lex for the past few weeks. "That one was Greg's," he said. "He died there."

Ted didn't know what to say. He just listened.

"There was a whole group of us. Working together. Studying infectious diseases until ..." Henry paused. "After the lightning hit me and opener up my connection to the Black and White, it was Chad's idea that I take some time off. My mind was too clouded to communicate properly with Webby—"

Ted still had no idea who Webby was or what the Black and White was, but he had rolled with it for long enough that it seemed awkward to ask now. 

"So I took some time off. I relaxed. Focused on healing and creating this new connection with the other realm. Only that's when it happened." Henry led Ted down the long corridor, pointing at each room they passed. "Steve. Stu. Mark. Leighton." He paused and took a deep breath. "And Chad." He moved to the last room. "That one was mine, but I never had to use it. Chad was the only one who didn't die in one of these loathsome rooms."

"He's still alive?" Ted asked. 

"Oh no. He's very much dead. He was the last to go. I just made sure he died in our bed, not alone down here."

"Our?"

"Chad was, well, it downplays it too much to say boyfriend. He was my husband in every sense of the word except for legal. It wasn't yet ... acceptable."

"Henry, I'm so sorry," Ted said, shocking by the news. He had had no idea.

"It's been over twenty years now," Henry said with a forced smile. "I'm fine. I'd just rather not see it happen again." 

"You know, letting us in isn't gonna prevent anything. It's just going to ruin the present. Letting me in won't eliminate the possibility of what happened to Chad happening again. Besides, there's no way it would. Even if I got infected, it'd hurt way less 'cause you and Chad were basically married and we're just friends."

"Right," Henry said. "Just friends."


	7. Weather is weather, don't bitch about it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ted and Henry's relationship takes a turn in a new direction. Featuring Life-or-Death Monopoly.

Ted couldn't sleep that night, busy thinking about what Henry had told him. He hated that sad look in his eyes. Though he claimed to be fine, Ted knew he wasn't. He didn't know why he cared about Henry so much. There was a word for it he couldn't quite put his finger on. Something about his smile, and the way he made Ted feel. It wasn't like any friendship he had before. He certainly didn't feel that way around Bill or Paul. The closest he had gotten to that feeling before was with Charlotte, and that was different because Charlotte was a girl, and he cared about her.

Unless ...

Ted pushed the thought out of his head. It didn't make sense. Sure he had thought about that, but it wasn't him. Besides, even if he was ... that ... wouldn't he have known a long time ago? 

He didn't have time to think about that now. He sat up and pulled his duffle bag away from the wall of the tent, pushing his cot further from the edge. It was storming out, and water had already begun to soak the edges of the tent the rain fly didn't cover. The wind was outrageous and flung the tent this way and that, but the ropes held. Thunder crackled and raindrops pounded above his head, but Ted didn't mind. He liked loud noises. They drowned out the thoughts in his head. 

It was midnight when the light of a flashlight illuminated the side of the tent and he heard Henry's voice call out, "Ted, you up?"

"Yeah," he shouted back, struggling to be heard over the pounding rain. "Come in." Henry struggled with the tent zipper but eventually got it open and stepped inside, drenched head to toe. 

"Oh geez," Ted said, jumping up and grabbing a blanket, wrapping it around Henry's shoulders and trying to pat him dry the best he could. 

"I'm alright," Henry smiled. "Just came to check on you. Tom and Tim came inside a while ago."

"I used to camp with my dad as a kid. I'm used to storms like this."

"Still, you might want to come inside."

"It's got to be so crowded in there already, I don't want to take up too much room."

"Nonsense, no one is sleeping tonight. They're all up in the living room playing life-or-death Monopoly."

"Life-or-what now?"

Henry shrugged. "Lex made it up while she was quarantined. Each spot on the monopoly board corresponds to a different board game, and the winner of the board game gets the property. There are lots of rules, it's confusing. I think Emma found a way to turn it into a drinking game." 

Ted chuckled. Charlotte would've liked that. "So why're you out here and not in there playing with everyone?"

"Because I wanted to check in on you. And because I need a partner for the ping-pong tournament over the electric company."

Ted smiled. "You think we could actually beat Alice?"

"You and me together? We'd be unstoppable." 

"Listen, Henry" Ted said, changing the tone of the conversation completely. "About what you said earlier—"

"It was long ago. It doesn't matter."

"—thank you for telling me. It means a lot that you trust me."

"Of course I trust you. Ted, I—" He paused. "You remind me of someone I used to know. I know the world is weird right now, and I probably sound really weird right now, I'm sorry, but it's okay. It's all okay because I met you. And I hate that you seem to think you're ... less ... than everything I know you are. I like being around you, Ted."

"I, uh, I like being around you too, Henry." Ted gave a forced smile. "Sorry I'm not good at emotional shit. I've never really had any close friends before."

"Yeah. Friends. Friends are great." Henry took a deep breath. "Maybe it's the storm. Maybe it's got me feeling invincible, but I need you to know that I don't see you like that."

Ted's heart fell. "Oh. Okay." He hadn't seen this coming. He knew he was bad with friends. They never stuck. He had to fight so hard to keep Paul and Bill. He never had to try with Henry, and I guess that's why he was never scared of losing him. "I understand. I wouldn't want to be friends with me either—"

"No, no, no, no!" Henry said. "That's the opposite of what in trying to say. Ted, are one of the most amazing people I have ever met and I consider myself lucky to be your friend. But the feelings I have for you are more than platonic."

Ted stood there in silence, not knowing what to say. 

"I'm sorry," Henry said, backing up. "I should go." He unzipped the tent and disappeared into the rain, leaving Ted still frozen there.

He ... liked Ted? Ted wasn't an idiot. He knew he had feelings for the professor. But he had never given himself the privilege of dwelling on them or viewing them as anything more than a heterosexual admiration. Yet here he was, standing alone in his tent as a perfect guy who was a million miles out of his league walled away. 

Ted snapped out of his frozen trance and unzipped the tent door, running after the professor. 

"Henry!" he shouted, barely able to see three feet in front of his through the sheet of rain. "Henry!"

He caught up to the professor, both thoroughly drenched. "I'm an idiot," he shouted through the rain. "I'm sorry I froze, I just—I never thought there'd be someone like you who could want me. You deserve so much better, but if it's me you want, then I'm yours. Everything. All of me. It's yours. If I could have even a little bit of you in return it's worth it."

"You actually—"

"Yes."

"And you quoted Dear Evan Hansen."

"I panicked." Ted stepped forward and took Henry's hand. He laughed. "I wish I could see you better through the rain, but it's clinging to my eyelashes."

"I guess it's okay no for me to tell you how insanely cute you are," Henry grinned. 

"Would ... would it be okay if I kissed you?"

Henry nodded, and Ted stood up on tiptoes, pressing his lips into Henry's, their fingers intertwining as the rain around them continued to pour. 

"Ping-pong for electric company?" Ted asked, pulling away.

"Hell yeah. I won Water Works in a game of scrabble and if we don't get Electric Company, then whatever this is is over," Henry joked.

"What is this?"

"I don't know," Henry said. "But I'd like to find out."

Ted smiled. "Me too."

The two rejoined the chaos inside the professor's house. Emma, Alice, and Tim were beating each other with couch cushions. Paul and Bill circled each other menacingly, water guns in their hands. Hannah and Ethan stared each other down in the midst of a very tense game of go fish. "You can't use your space spider friend to tell you what cards I have!" Ethan yelled. Tom sipped his margarita, watching the chaos with a friendly smirk. 

"Oh hell yes!" Alice said, jumping down from the couch. "Ping-pong time. Paul, you're my partner."

"Wait what?"

"Lesbian solidarity, come on!"

"I'm not a lesbian—" Paul protested.

Alice turned to Henry. "While you were out I showed Paul the tumblr post I made last week." Henry was familiar with the post. It just said: 

All lesbians reblog if you love and support my uncle Paul.

"I just passed 1,000 notes," Alice explained.

"I'll be right down. Let me just change into some dry clothes. Ted, would you like to borrow some?"

Ted looked down at his soaked clothes. "Uh, yeah. That might be a good idea."

The two climbed the stairs up to Henry's bedroom, Ted awkwardly slipping his hand into Henry's, unsure if that was weird or not, but enjoying the contact. He wasn't quite sure what was going on with them, but he liked it.

"This might fit," Henry said, tossing Ted a white shirt. 

Ted removed his soaked shirt, Henry staring for a second before shyly turning away. Ted smiled, sticking his arms through the sleeves of the shirt and pulling it over his head. "It's okay. You can stare. I know I'm hot."

"How can you be so confident?"

"You don't think I'm hot?" Ted fake pouted. Henry turned bright red. "I don't either," he admitted. "Act confident until you feel confident, amirite?"

Henry pulled out a fresh shirt for himself and awkwardly turned his back to Ted. Ted had very little self-control and couldn't help but stare as Henry slipped his shirt off. 

"Hey, um, about what just happened—" Ted said.

Henry tugged on a fresh shirt and turned to face him. "Oh God. You regret it. I'm too old, I'm too nerdy, you wish it had never happened—"

"No, no, no! I'm glad it happened." Ted stepped forward and grabbed Henry's hand. "I'm really glad. I just ... don't want to talk about it with other people just yet. Can this be a secret, just for now?"

"Oh, of course. Whatever makes you comfortable."

Ted let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you. I need time to process. I haven't ... felt this way about a man since college. I repressed that side a long time ago. And I know I feel something for you, but it's bringing up a lot of baggage I'm going to have to deal with." Ted paused and sighed. "I guess what I'm asking for is time. Trust me, I do have feelings for you, but I can't confront them right now. God, I feel like such an asshole. Could we maybe stay friends for now? And just work our way up to something more?"

"But you—"

"I know what I said earlier. I know I'm a grade-A asshole and I never should have kissed you because now things are weird and I do mean all those things I said before, but I'm trying to be a realist. If there's anyway this—" he gestured at the two of them "—is going to work out, I can't rush in. I don't want to break your heart."

"I can protect my own heart, but if that's what you want, then that's what will happen. Just friends it is, then."

"Just friends," Ted repeated. Henry looked heartbroken and it pained him. "I do want to be more, I think, it's just too soon. I want to kiss you again, but when I do, I want to make sure I know 100% that it's what I want, and that no one's going to get hurt."

"Just friends," Henry said with a choked smile.


	8. Don't Get Attached, the reprise

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I love Ted but he is an angsty boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: suicidal ideation/planning

So that was it. Ted kissed him and then all of a sudden just wanted to be friends again. Henry supposed he should have seen it coming. It was too good to be true. He didn't know why he had told Ted like that. He hadn't meant to. In fact, he had meant to never ever tell him. But in the storm everything felt possible. 

"Just friends," he mumbled, and went downstairs, Ted behind him. 

"Get ready to LOSE!" Alice shouted, tossing a paddle at him. It hit his chest, having been completely unprepared to catch it.

"You good?" Emma asked.

Henry nodded. "Yeah I'm fine." He should be fine. He just kissed this perfect guy. Couldn't that be enough? It should be. "Let's do this."

Paul was technically on Alice's team, but he never touched the ball. Alice singlehandedly crushed them, but Henry wasn't trying that hard.

"We'll get her next time, Hen," Ted said. It was the first time Henry heard him use a nickname like that.

"No. Don't do that." Henry chuckled, smiling ear to ear as realization dawned on him. "I'm Michael Mell, aren't I? That's all I'll ever be. But any idiot knows that no matter how long he waits, he and Jeremy will never happen."

"I don't understand," Ted said, his eyes darting to the others now staring at them.

Henry laughed. "Michael never ends up with Jeremy. Jeremy wasn't good for Michael. The kids ship him with Rich now."

"Maybe Jeremy needs time. Maybe Michael should give him some."

"Maybe Michael would if he knew that it would eventually happen."

"Maybe Jeremy should've been more clear. He wants something with Michael, he just needs time because Michael is so fantastic that until that point he had never really had to come to terms with that side of himself. Maybe Jeremy is a fucking loser and doesn't want to fuck up another perfect person. Maybe Jeremy tried with Christine and ruined everything."

"Michael needs to fucking sleep," Henry said, rolling his eyes and storming out.

They waited until he was out of earshot before Alice broke the tension-filled silence. "How big of a disaster bi are you that you fucked that up that badly?!"

"Language!" a shocked Bill cried out.

"I swear to god if you hurt the professor—" Emma started.

"Ted, are you, y'know...?" Paul asked.

"I'm not—I, uh, I don't know. I really don't know," Ted said.

"Ted if you hurt one hair on his head—" Emma threatened.

Ted threw his hands in the air in surrender. "I don't want to hurt him! I don't mean to hurt him. I just have to figure some shit out."

"Just tell him how you feel," Tom said from the back of the room. Everyone looked up at him, surprised. "What?" he asked. "I've been in love twice, I think I'm qualified to give some advice. You have to be honest with him. If space is what you need and you explain it to him in a way that doesn't make it seem like he's the problem, he'll be more than willing to give it to you, and if he isn't you need to think about where he's coming from and come to some sort of compromise. Otherwise you're screwed." 

"Oh God," Ted said, his face turning pale. "Do you think he thinks it's about him? No, fuck. How did I screw this up already?"

Alice climbed on top of the ping-pong table and pointed dramatically at Ted. "You march your ass upstairs right now young man and you apologize to that sweet gay angel or so help me god I will send a laser-guided ballistic missile to your house in Denver."

There was a long pause. "What the hell was that?" Bill finally asked.

Alice climbed off the table. "I dunno. It felt like the moment called for it."

"The moment? Alice the moment never calls for threats of missiles. You don't even have that power—"

"Uh Deb's uncle is the secretary of defense. I could pull some strings."

"Honey, we don't know if Deb's even alive," Bill said softly.

Alice's face turned to stone. "Thanks, Dad," she said, leaving the room. 

"No, Alice!" Bill said, exasperated as he followed his kid out.

"Who's Deb?" Hannah asked. 

"Alice's girlfriend," Ethan explained.

"Oh, so she's a lesbian."

"I think so," Ethan said, though he couldn't be sure. 

"Are you a lesbian?"

Ethan laughed. "No."

"Then why do you dress like one?"

Ethan rolled up the sleeves of their flannel like they were ready to get in a fight, or wash the dishes. "Because lesbian fashion is god-tier."

"You know what," Ted said, "you guys keep playing without me. I think I'm gonna hit the hay."

"No way," Emma said. "You go upstairs and apologize to professor Hidgens right now."

"I can't handle this right now, Emma."

"Listen to me, Ted," she said, storming over to him and grabbing him by the front of his shirt. "I would murder everyone in this room and then myself before I see someone break that poor man's heart. He has been through enough already."

"I know!" Ted said. "Believe me, I know. I'm the last person who wants to hurt him."

"Then you either go upstairs and apologize or you stay away from him. You hear me? You're a sleazeball, Ted, and he doesn't need that."

"I know—"

"He deserves better, so you'd better make it work or give up trying because I don't give a rat's ass about what happens to you but if you break his heart—"

"Fuck off!" Ted yelled, pushing Emma back.

"Hey!" Paul shouted, stepping in.

"No, Paul. I'm not taking any shit from you today," Ted said. "Go on and hate me, I don't care. You're all better off without me, but I'm here now. Bill and Ch—" he choked on the words. "Bill and Charlotte should have left me at CCRP like they were planning to. Maybe if I hadn't been such an ass and forced them to take me I would have been dead long ago and none of this would be an issue." He forced a laugh to cover up the choked sobs he was holding back. "I should've been left for dead. I wish I was. Then I wouldn't have had to see her die. It shoulda been me, not her. Me, not her," he repeated. "I loved her, Emma. I loved her. You didn't even know her. And of course I can't actually grieve for her because no one fucking knew about it. Well now you know, huh? Charlotte and I were sleeping together and I meant nothing to her but she meant everything to me, and you expect me to just be okay and move on with the professor? I want to be good for him but I am broken and I'm bruised and don't know which way is up anymore and I don't know who I am or where I belong but I guess you've made it very clear it's not here."

Ted dropped to his knees, one hand squeezing his temples, hiding the tears welling up in his eyes as he shook, sobs racking his body. He had held back those words too long.

"Teddy," Hannah said, walking to him and giving him a hug, trying her best to comfort him though she didn't understand at all what was happening.

Ted smiled and patted her on the back. "Take care of Robert, huh?" Hannah nodded and Ted stood up, giving Paul a pat on the shoulder. "I know I'm an ass and you hate me, but I've always considered you my best friend."

"Ted, I—" Paul started.

"And Erika, go fuck yourself. Goodnight guys."

There was a faint chorus of "goodnight"s from the confused group. Ted left the house and out into the storm, only he didn't return to his tent. "Alexa, open the gate."

He had only been stalling the inevitable. From the moment Mr. Davidson invited him into his office, he was a dead man. He should have let Charlotte and Bill go on without him instead of barging in and dragging himself along. They didn't want him there in the first place. It was better this way. Everything ended and he could just ... not be anymore. 

What would it look like if he stayed? He'd try to be a good influence on the kids but he knew they'd pick up all his bad habits. The professor hated him and even if he did manage to fix his mistakes and work it out, would they even last? The professor would slowly grow to hate him, but feel stuck with him because there's literally no one else, or they'd have a messy break-up and no space to avoid each other. 

It was all better this way.

It took barely a moment for Ted to become soaked to the bone, but he kept walking, the gate closing behind him, and he kept walking the abandoned streets until the first signs of daylight started breaking. Maybe it was the delirium that came from staying up all night, or the rain playing tricks on his eyes, but he almost swore he could see Charlotte at the end of the street, waving at him.

He stopped dead in his tracks. He was looking for a sign, and there it was. "You don't look the same," he began to sing, "at all as I remember. The light has left your eyes, something is changed, then you were way more put together. The universe is infinite, and it's definite, there's an alternate reality, where it's only you and me. Take me back in time to love you. Hold me closer than before. Heal my heart and mend what's broken, to feel you once more—"

Ted's heart broke, remembering Charlotte. Everything that was. Everything that should have been. Everything that could have been but wasn't. 

Let them come. Let them take him. What he wouldn't do to feel the sweet release of death.

The figure in the distance moved closer, the rain blurring her outline. "Just take me back, gotta take me back," she hummed in a sinister tone as she approached, definitely not Charlotte, but she looked a little like her, in a green Beanie's apron. 

"Please," Ted begged as the woman approached him, drawn by his singing. She raised a sinister hand to strike him down. In the last moments before death, a smile crossed his face. He could be free now. No more worries. No more apocalypse. No more Charlotte. Nothing.

A gunshot rang out and the woman dropped to the ground, blue blood pooling from the hole in her head. Ted whirled around to see a rain-soaked Henry Hidgens holster his gun and run to him. "Cause I already lost it once," he sang, raindrops clinging to his eyelashes as he looked down at Ted, his hands on Ted's hips, "what I already won."

What was he doing? Ted looked up at him and their voices melded together. "I've lost too much now to care, but I know that something's still there." Ted had spent too long in silence, his life devoid of music, now Henry filled it.

"I'll never let you go," he belted, his forehead pressed against Ted's.

"I'll never let you go," Ted repeated much softer. 

His hand cupped the side of Henry's face as the rain poured down around them, thunder rumbling above them as they sang the final, "I'll never let you go now."

"I don't understand," Ted said, not sure if it was rain clinging to his eyelashes or tears. "Why are you here?"

"You know why I'm here, Ted. I understand if you just want to be friends, but I can't lose you."

"No," Ted said forcefully.

"No?"

"No," he repeated leaning in and pressing his lips against Henry's. He pulled back and belted, "In time to love you."

Henry's voice joined his. "Hold me closer than before. Heal my heart and mend what's broken to feel you once more."

"Feel you once more," Henry sang, pulling Ted into a hug, Ted burying his face in Henry's shoulder, letting the tears run. The sun rose behind the clouds casting a faint light through the gaps in the storm as the two stood in the middle of the street, safe in the darkness of the downpour, each searching for a home in the other's arms.


	9. Kids Will Be Kids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> We meet a new character, with more on the way! I hope you guys like the names I've chosen for them.

"Come on," Henry said, slipping his hand into Ted's. "Let's get you home."

As they turned they were met with the cocking of a gun. "Hands in the air. I've got low blood sugar and I'm not afraid to shoot."

Both immediately threw their hands in the air. "Ok calm down, kid," Henry said, taking in the boy that stood before him. He was mousy, with brown hair and suspenders over a button-up shirt that was stained with mud and looked like it hadn't been washed in weeks. The boy's hair was greasy and matted and his face was bruised.

"Don't come any closer," he said, shaking. "I heard you singing. I know you're like them."

"Oh fuck," Ted said. "C'mon, we're not infected. We're just theater nerds."

The boy's eyes glanced up and down. "Him I can believe, but not you," he said, aiming the gun at Ted.

"I know you have no reason to trust me, but you have to. We come from a safe haven. We have food and shelter and can provide for you. There's some other kids there. Maybe you know them. Lex Foster and her sister Hannah. Tim Houston. Ethan Green."

The kid lowered his gun ever so slightly. "You know Ethan?"

Ted's face brightened. "Of course! They've been living with us. We have a whole group. You can join."

"How do I know you're not lying?"

"You can't. You just need to take a leap of faith."

The boy hesitantly lowered his gun. "Alright."

The three piled into Henry's car and took off toward home, driving in silence until Ted let his curiosity get the best of him. "Where have you been living, kid?"

"Wherever it's safe," he said, clutching his gun.

"Where'd you get that."

"The military man gave it to me."

"John MacNamara?"

The boy shook his head. "Said his name was Xander. I saw him just two days ago."

"That's impossible," Henry said. "I thought all of PEIP was wiped out."

He shrugged. "He said he just arrived. Was looking for James. Or John. Or Jim. I forget."

Ted and Henry exchanged a pointed look, but it was too late to unpack any of that as they were now pulling into the professor's driveway. He called Emma to open the gate and they were let inside. 

The last remnants of the storm were now clearing up and the sun was beginning to warm the stagnant air.

"Don't run off like that," Paul said, immediately running to Ted and throwing his arms around him. "I was worried."

Ted was knocked back, confused. "I didn't know you cared."

"I'm not good at the whole friends thing," Paul said, stepping back. "But you're one of mine."

"Ollie?" Ethan asked, running out of the house. They ran to the new kid and threw their arms around him. "Thank God you're okay. Where's the rest of the family?"

The kid shook his head sadly and Ethan hugged him tighter. "At least you made it out okay."

"Who's the new kid?" Emma asked.

"This here is my cousin Oliver," Ethan explained. "Come on, let's get you inside."

Ethan brought Oliver inside and sat him down at the kitchen table, fixing him up a hot chocolate and a bowl of cereal for breakfast. They grabbed a wet cloth and started wiping the dirt off his face like an overprotective mother.

"I'm scared," Oliver admitted. 

"Were you alone the whole time?" 

He nodded. "I tried to get to the mall. August was working that day, but when I got there, it was all gone."

"I'm so sorry, Ollie. I was with him right before it all broke out. Hannah and I were trying to catch a movie. I was so focused on getting Hannah out safe I didn't even think about August."

"What if he didn't make it, E? What if—"

"Hey, it'll be alright. Maybe we could give him a call? Have you tried that?"

"I don't want to put a target on my back if he is ... infected."

"Then we'll call from my phone. He won't know who it is."

"You're sure?" Ethan nodded. "And what if he doesn't pick up?"

"Then we'll be no worse off than we were before," they said, pulling out their phone. Oliver told him the number and they waited anxiously for an answer. It seemed forever before they finally got one.

"Who is this?" a meek voice said. "Caller ID says it's coming from Hatchetfield, who are you?" Ethan stared at Oliver, who had a glimmer of hope in his eyes. "Are you one of them? Stay away from me."

"No, no, Auggie, It's me. It's Oliver."

"Ollie?"

"Yeah."

"You're alive? Where have you been? I went to your house and—"

"I went to the mall looking for you."

"You came for me?"

"Of course."

"Listen," Ethan said. "This is E, Oliver's cousin. Tell us where you are and we'll come pick you up. We've got a safe place. You can come live with us. Are you alone?"

"I'm with Grace."

"Fucking what now?" Ethan exclaimed.

"Hold on why are you with my sister?" Oliver asked.

"Well I went to your house looking for you and she was there. I figured you'd go looking for her and we'd all end up together but you never came."

"Give us your location and we'll be on our way," Ethan said, grabbing the keys to the Sedan.

"Hey!" Tom yelled as Ethan and Oliver ran outside. "You gotta ask before you borrow my car."

"Sorry Tom!" Ethan laughed piling into the driver's seat.

"Hold up, kids," Ted said. "Where the heck are you going?"

"We've got a location on my cousin and Ollie's boyfriend," Ethan explained.

"Can I come?" Alice asked, raising her hand.

"Alice, you have to stay here," Bill said.

"Come on, Dad! I haven't left this place since we got stuck here. Please let me have some fun?" Bill begrudgingly agreed and she eagerly climbed into the car. "Yess!" she squealed. "Teen day out."

"Stay safe," Henry warned, handing Ethan his gun. "And don't do anything stupid."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just for any clarification in case it wasn't clear, Oliver is Hot Chocolate Boy and August is Cineplex Teen.


End file.
